On the way back from a successful S-rank mission with her boys her team is attacked by a small army and forced to separate. Will the three survive such a long battle after just completing an S-rank mission? Will they all make it home in one piece? ONESHOT

A/N: Hey guys! I know its been forever and I know I have other stories left unfinished but I was in the mood to write a oneshot and my sister encouraged me to write this story because she's on a Sakura/Sasuke kick. I've never written for this pairing before so give me a little slack. I also don't have a beta and rereading your own work can only find so much so I apologize for any grammatical errors.

Dedicated to Tsukiyomi'sBloodyBlossom

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and y'all better be glad I don't! ;D

Love Everlasting

Sakura/Sasuke Oneshot

Crimson. All around her were splashes of crimson and cries of pain as she tried to locate her team while blocking the violent sword thrusts and flying kunai that were constantly trying to paint the ground with more crimson blood. Deflecting a sword strike with her own ANBU issued wakizashi she didn't hesitate an instant before slamming a chakra-enforced fist through the chest of her attacker. Her jade eyes flew to the mass of ninjas that were still coming at her as her mind flitted back to her team.

She and her boys had been making their way back to Konoha after another successful S-rank mission when the ground exploded beneath them sending them all flying in opposite directions. She'd managed to get a glimpse of blonde hair and crimson eyes before she'd been forced even further away from them. Now she had been pushed so far back that she could not even hear her teammates battles though their chakra signatures were still clearly flaring.

Her fine tuned senses alerted her to the incoming wave of kunai only seconds before they made impact and it took amazing skill to block the majority of them with fluid movements of her sword. Inwardly smacking herself for letting her attention drift away from her very dangerous battle she noted that three of the kunai had reached their target and lodged themselves into her legs and torso. None of the wounds she had so far were fatal but they were painful and she didn't have the time to stop and heal herself.

Deciding that it was high time she stop playing around she narrowed her jade orbs at the remaining ninja before her. She had slain at least five as they pushed her back and the twenty or so bodies that lie sprawled across the clearing, staining the ground crimson, led her to believe that the group that attacked them had been a small army not an organized ninja squad from one of the hidden villages. By her count there were still fifteen ninja left before her and these were more calculating and careful than those she had already slain.

Through the holes in her ANBU cat mask she studied those left standing. Not a single one of them had on a slashed forehead protector to indicate which village they came from but she knew without a doubt they had all received extensive ninja training. Her own injuries were proof of that. Not many jounin could claim that they had injured the Hokage's apprentice since she had made it into ANBU, and those they could were all dead.

To her credit though fighting forty well-trained ninja by yourself was taxing to anyone. She just hoped that her boys were fairing as well or better than her. Although she knew she shouldn't worry, both of her boys were far stronger than her, she couldn't help the rush of fear each time their chakras spiked.

Forcing her mind back to the situation at hand before the enemy did it for her she gripped the hilt of her wakizashi and allowed her water element to form along the blade elongating it and making her attack range far wider. Grinning beneath her mask at the obvious note of fear in their eyes at the new development she did not hesitate any longer to throw herself forward and begin dwindling the enemies numbers yet again.

At one time the massive amount of blood that surrounded her that she herself had spilt would have bothered her. However, years of training that ultimately led to finding Sasuke lying in an ever-growing pool of his own blood served to completely wipe out her aversion to spilling blood. As a doctor she was sworn to save lives but as a kunoichi and an ANBU member she swore her loyalty first to her team and village.

Her water covered blade sliced through two more enemies dropping their number to ten and she jumped back a moment to pause and catch her breath. Her battle with the enemy shinobi had not left her unscathed and in addition to the three kunai she also had a long cut running across her shoulder blades and arching down toward her mid-back. Her long pink hair held in a high ponytail was covered in blood from the wound making it seem that she had dyed the ends of her hair red. Her lip was busted and a senbon had cut a thin line across the soft tissue of her cheek but she ignored those minor injuries and focused a small amount of heeling chakra to keep the larger wound on her back from spilling all of her life giving fluid. Only half of her ANBU cat mask still remained on her face covering from the tip of her nose up to the crown of her head.

Jade eyes flicking to the side at the sound of someone running toward her and she didn't notice the paper bomb that landed at her feet until it was too late. As her body flew through the air like a ragdoll she caught sight of glowing crimson eyes and her ears picked up the vicious snarl that leapt from his throat before she collided violently with the ground and skidded a good twenty feet before her body was suddenly in free fall.

Too late did she register that the ground had dropped out from under her and the stupidity of allowing the nin to push her back to a cliffside swam through her mind. Without thinking she coated her hands in chakra and dug them into the cliff wall. Still sliding but now having dirt and debris clouding her vision she forced even more chakra into her hands to slow her fall. To her dismay the only thing she could grasp was loose dirt and she still continued to fall.

Beginning to think she was actually going to die pathetically from being blown off a cliff she was surprised when her hands caught something hard and her arms jerked signaling that she had finally stopped falling. Her breath was heavy as she tried to recover from the explosion and subsequent meeting with the ground and tumble off the cliff side. Using her now throbbing shoulder to wipe the dirt from her eyes as she hung almost limply she impatiently waited as her eyes cleared so she could see what her situation really was.

Looking up she could see the edge of the cliff was more than two hundred yards above her and that she was hanging by the very edge of a two-foot long ledge that jutted out from the uniform straight edge of the cliff side. Adjusting her hold slightly so that she was more secure she tried to place her chakra covered feet to the wall so she could simply walk back up but to her dismay as soon as her foot connected with the wall pain shot through her leg and she realized that her lower legs must have been damaged in the blast.

The jarring of her body caused by her attempt to gain footing reminded her of her other injuries as well and she knew she wouldn't last much longer clinging to the edge of the cliff. She could already feel her exhaustion from the S-rank mission and following battle taking its toll on her but she absolutely refused to die here. She knew that at least one of her teammates had seen her plummet over the cliff edge and, despite how much it annoyed her to think about, she knew that one of her two boys would be down to save her shortly.

Looking up as she rolled her eyes at the thought of needing saving she was just in time to see a dark figure dive over the top of the cliff and begin quickly making its way toward her stranded form. As the figure neared her the bright blonde hair of her teammate became clear and she noted that a long line of shadow clones were securing Naruto to the top of the cliff.

"Sakura-chan!"

The worry in his eyes could be seen through his fox mask and it touched her but the massive explosion at the top of the cliff drew her attention further upward once more. Naruto's brilliant blue eyes flashed back to where the battle was still raging before falling back to her own exhausted jade in a mixture of relief, fear, and anxiety that would have made her laugh in any other situation.

When his strong arms wrapped around her waste she immediately released the ledge she was holding in favor of wrapping her arms around his neck. She told him not to worry about her and to get them back up to the battle quickly.

"Where's Sasuke?"

Her worry was clear in her eyes and Naruto grinned slightly before refocusing on the task of directing his clones to pull them upwards.

"Well Sakura-chan let's just say that the teme was more than a little upset to see you get blown off a cliff."

As they neared the top of the cliff screams of pain and fear could be heard causing her to draw her brows together in confusion. Still the fear that was nagging at her wouldn't go away even as they made it back to the top of the cliff and Naruto jumped to the tree line to set her down. The battle scene before her was even worse than before as it seemed the men that had pursued Naruto and Sasuke that had not already been killed had joined the group she had fought. The sight of Sasuke's broad shoulders heaving from exertion as he held back more than fifty remaining ninja alone so that Naruto could go save her made her chest tighten.

"Stay here Cat-chan. You're banged up pretty bad and now that we know you're ok teme and I can take care of the rest of these guys."

Now that she took notice of it her body was aching horribly and the amount of blood she had lost was frightening. Using a minimal amount of chakra she began to assess her injuries while still watching the battle going on in front of her. She was right when she noted that her legs had taken a lot of damage in the blast and she didn't have the chakra right now to heal them. She wasn't worried about dying because none of her injuries were life threatening but she doubted seriously that she could stand in her condition much less walk or run.

Another explosion rocked the ground and her jade eyes flew from her injuries back to the battle before her and sighed in relief that both Naruto and Sasuke had managed to avoid the blast. The two ANBU were making short work of the enemy nin before them and the once fifty enemies now stood only twenty. Her eyes fell upon Sasuke's wolf mask as he threw a wave of powerful genjutsu at the group before him. Every one of them fell into the trap and without blinking the Uchiha flashed forward and killed them all. Fifteen.

Skipping her eyes back over to Naruto's battle she noticed that he had taken down another five with his kage bushin. That left only ten but after scanning the remaining nin with critical eyes she noted that there were only nine standing in the clearing. Too late did she notice the chakra signature behind her and before she could try to move a large bloody hand grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her upward.

Her strangled cry of pain did not go unnoticed as a pair of crimson eyes flew towards her followed by a pair of cerulean blue that were quickly bleeding crimson as well. The hand that had grasped her neck was now clasped around her jaw and was wrenching her head back exposing her neck to the kunai he now held there threateningly.

Sasuke's sharingan was now spinning madly and to her surprise bled into the Mangekyo as he took a step toward her. The nin behind her tensed and pushed the kunai deeper against her neck drawing a small amount of blood. Sasuke froze and Naruto, whose eyes were now the angry red of the kyuubi, growled threateningly. For some reason this felt amazingly like daja vu as once again she had to be saved.

This time would be different though. She was stronger and despite her injuries she refused to be manhandled. In an instant she snapped her hand up and broke the wrist that was holding the kunai to her throat. Sasuke and Naruto flew into action and in an instant Sasuke held her in his arms while Naruto slammed a rasengan into the nin's chest. For a moment she thought she felt Sasuke sigh in relief as he cradled her in his arms but pushed that thought aside as foolish. However, the tightness in his muscles and grinding of his teeth clearly showed his anger as he jumped back to dodge an attack from one of the eight remaining shinobi.

Her wounds jarred by the quick jump away she let out a small hiss of pain and that was it. The thin wire of control Sasuke had snapped and without another thought he released the Amaterasu on the remaining nin. As all eight men died screaming she could not look away from his eyes as one lone tear of blood ran from his right eye. She wished so badly that she could reach up and heal his eye but at the moment her chakra was being used to dull the pain in her scorched and fractured lower legs and even that was running low. After the screams finally stopped Sasuke ended the technique and lowered his head to look at her as the remnants of his wolf mask completely turned to ash.

"Sakura."

The way he said her name conveyed to her how afraid he had been as she'd been blown over the edge and out of his sight. That one simple word held so much emotion that she could not help but smile despite her pain and exhaustion. She knew that as soon as they got back to Konoha and she got out of the hospital she was in for a few days of not leaving their apartment at all and after that quite a while of overprotective behavior. That was ok with her though because she had been incredibly worried about him as well.

"Teme we need to hurry and get Sakura-chan back to baa-chan so she can heal her," Naruto said as he approached them with his fox mask pushed to the top of his head and worry written across his face.

"I know that dobe," was Sasuke's short reply as he stood and they both took off for Konoha once again at remarkable speeds despite their own injuries.

"Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun I'm ok. You don't have to hurry."

Even as she said that though her chakra ran out and the pain returned tenfold. Clenching her jaw closed to keep from crying out each time Sasuke's foot landed lightly on a branch to propel them forward she could not help the tears that began to leak from beneath her closed lashes. Soon she couldn't contain the small whimpers of pain that were forcing themselves from her lips and to her dismay the muscles in Sasuke's arms tensed in response and he pushed himself even faster.

"Hold on Sakura just a little further," Sasuke said so quietly she barely heard him.

Afraid to open her mouth to answer least a scream of pain tear itself from her throat she merely nodded weakly and redoubled her efforts to suffer in silence. She barely noticed when they passed into the gates of Konoha and Naruto shot off to fetch Tsunade while Sasuke went strait to the hospital. Her consciousness finally slipped away from her as the white walls of the hospital came into view.

As her eyes fluttered open she was grateful that the pain had ceased. Feeling that she had regained enough chakra in however long she had been unconscious she scanned her body and found that Tsunade had healed all the damage and she was left with only bruises on her shins and calves and a few other small aches.

Taking a look around her room for the first time she wasn't surprised that she was in a hospital bed but her eyes softened as they fell upon Naruto, who had fallen asleep in the windowsill, and Sasuke, who was sitting beside her bed with her small hand wrapped safely within his larger one. Her boys. She knew that no matter what happened she could always count on them to protect her and bring her home. Curling her fingers around Sasuke's out of pure instinct she couldn't help the smile that grew at the caring gesture. Despite the fact that they had been living together for over a year he never was one for public displays of affection and yet her he was holding her hand in an open hospital room where anyone could see.

"Sakura."

His deep voice speaking her name drew her attention from his hand to his eyes that were now open and staring into hers with such intensity that she almost wanted to look away. Almost.

"I thought I'd lost you."

Onyx met jade and for the first time she could truly see just how much her brush with death had bothered him. She could only smile and tighten her grip on his hand in reassurance that she was still here. He gently squeezed her hand in return and the worry in his eyes faded into caring.

"I'm sorry Sasuke-kun."

"No I'm sorry that I wasn't fast enough to protect you."

Her jade eyes glowed with love as his eyes filled with regret and guilt. He looked down and clenched his free hand into a fist and she knew he was reliving her dramatic tumble over the cliff. To her it was a painful, stupid mistake and definitely a learning experience but to him it must have been one of the most terrifying moments of his life. With a gentle smile she used her free hand to push herself up and instantly his hand was at her back gently helping her forward. Moving her hand around to play with the long black tresses that rested at the nape of his neck she rested her forehead against his and looked deeply into his eyes.

"You've always protected me. I love you Sasuke-kun."

And without waiting for him to respond she softly pressed her lips against his and enjoyed the way her whole world seemed at peace just being beside him. After a few moments of gentle yet passionate kissing Sasuke helped her lean back into the pillows of her bed and he sat back down in his chair. As she slowly started to drift off to sleep she barely caught his words before the darkness claimed her but it still left a small smile on her face.

"I love you too Sakura."

A/N: Well there you go. Probably not my best work but oh well what can I say I'm a bit rusty after so long. Hope y'all liked it though!

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Texascowgirl-13

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